Sunday means keto brunch noms! We had some simple fried eggs, cooked in butter, with a side of peppered spinach. Delish! What did you all have for brunch today?
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Butter and Eggs, Please!
Tag: keto
Pizza for Two
S and I didn’t put much thought into Valentine’s Day this year. In the past, we’ve gone out and stayed in, so knowing which direction plans for this day can go each year is always a wildcard.
“Do you think our Valentine’s Day plans are boring?” He asks just nervous enough, but still hungry for my response. “Not really. I like our plans. We’ve both had so much going on at work, so a chill night in sounds perfect to me.” His tone is relaxed now. “I just haven’t really thought about it.” Nor had I.
The truth is we had talked about our plans for Valentine’s Day. A couple weeks back we decided that we’d have a quiet night in – cooking low-carb pizza and having some champagne. We try not to drink during the week, so the fact that this day happened to fall on a Wednesday made it a treat in itself.
We settled on a simple bacon and cheese pizza. The crust consisted of cream cheese, egg, mozzarella cheese, almond flour, and we topped it with a low-sugar pizza sauce. We typically do pepperoni and sausage pizza, but we forgot to put pepperoni on the grocery list. Whoops! Not that this should be considered creative at all, but we decided on bacon when we realized our mistake. There’s always bacon around here though.
I tend to be a big cheeseball, so you could argue that I would expect a surge in romance on this day. Maybe it’s because we’ve been together for going on seven years, maybe it’s because we’re both thirty-one years old now, but this day is hardly considered romantic or important to us. I’ve written about this previously – check out that post here – but what about the other 364 days of the year?! If you’re going to be cute, warm and fuzzy, just surprise me with your heart.
We had some good pizza, crispy champagne, and each other… we’re full.
3 Things Keeping us Happy at the Moment
November is here! And with a new month comes new and refreshed interests in our day-to-day activities. One of my favorite podcasts, NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, has a weekly segment in which they share what’s making them happy that particular week. Every week, host Linda Holmes and a few other NPR panelists and guests share tidbits of pop culture that happen to be filling their individual happy tanks with joy. Items shared in the past include music, television shows, literature, video games, and don’t forget that viral video or meme everyone’s discussing. Here are a few things that’re keeping S and I happy at the moment:
Roseanne
This show is hilarious, undeniably relatable, and is filled with effortless humor. S and I have been spending a great deal of time with the Conner family in between IU basketball and The Real Housewives of fill-in-the-blank. We started season one at the end of September and found ourselves beginning season seven this afternoon. Every detail from the way the characters dress, down to the snacks the Conner kids eat is similar to how S and I grew up in the 90s. Another aspect of Roseanne that we appreciate is its honesty. This family is nowhere near keeping up with the Joneses and they don’t try to be. Roseanne and Dan Conner do their best to provide for their family and celebrate every victory that comes their way. The show was also way ahead of its time in the way it discussed (current) social issues.
Our Immersion Blender
This nifty little handheld device is usually used to whip up a great tomato bisque soup or keto mayo. With the weather starting to change, making things a bit more chilly, I’ve been having some fun with blended coffees in the morning. First I pour an 8-12 ounce cup of dark roast coffee in the blending cup, followed by a splash of unsweetened coconut milk, a scoop of Perfect Keto chocolate sea salt exogenous ketone powder, and finally a blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice seasonings. I then blend the mixture for about a minute or so before pouring the finished product in a mug or travel tumbler. You could easily make this in a shaker, but you’ll find the ingredients come together much better with the help of the immersion blender.
The Weather!
I’m usually ready for summer to be over by the time it actually ends. If it could be fall the months of September through May, and summer for the remaining months, that would be perfect. Does anyone know if a place like this exists? The air is finally feeling a bit more crisp, and the leaves are creating plenty of social-media-worthy opportunities with the gorgeous array of colors falling to the ground. The arrival of fall also means the temperature is sitting just right – completely void of Jack Frost or humidity hell if you’re out for a jog or long walk with the dog. A few other things the current weather has us pumped for include: crockpot meals, fall fashion, basketball (for S), and scarves (for me)! I love good scarf in the wind moment when I’m walking down a breezy pathway.
What’s making you all happy at the moment? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!
J
Feeling Great After a 24-Hour Fast
We fasted today to give our bodies a surge. In a fasted state, I have the most focused and productive workouts and feel a cognitive boost throughout the day. I feel great and wasn’t hungry at all today – probably because I keep my healthy fat intake at 70%-80%, my protein moderate, and my carbs really low.
My workout schedule wasn’t too strong this week, but there’s still time to make up for that. We’ve been really good because we want to look good at this wedding this weekend. Fasting while keto boosts your metabolism and naturally pumps up your muscles; it’s also scientifically proven to fight cancer cells.
I won’t lie though – the longest period I can fast for is 24 hours. It’s tougher when you lift heavy weights, so I generally stick to my #intermittent fasting windows; 16 hour fast. 8 hour feeding window. It’s amazing what the body can do when you fuel it properly and generously. 🐻
Brunch Fave: Sausage & Cornbread.
So can you tell bread was one of my favorite things before living a low-carb lifestyle? I’m telling you, I could turn anything into a sandwich. Sandwiches – no one in particular – were my favorite food and I’d have them often. That’s why so many of my last meal remixes have included keto bread. It must be a craving coming to test my will.
Today, I put a twist on one of my favorite college brunch items: sausage and cornbread. The original recipe comes from an old friend and roommate. With a single box of Jiffy cornbread mix, baked over cooked, crumbled breakfast sausage, the epic breakfast dish is ready when golden brown.
Instead of using the keto bread recipe to make biscuits or buns, I spread the uncooked dough over spicy crumbled sausage I’d prepared in the skillet. I doused the sausage with cayenne pepper, black pepper, and Italian seasoning as it sizzled in the heat, so this dish was going to have just the right amount of kick. If you can make it spicy? Make it spicy. Let the dish bake until golden brown and spread REAL butter over the top before letting it rest. After about ten minutes, cut and serve with sugar-free syrup.
This looks like a heavy meal, right? I was pleasantly surprised at how light the meal was; the complete opposite feeling of the one you have after eating the original recipe. I had two pieces in the beginning and felt completely satisfied – not too full – after I’d finished them. We love to make this and bake the mixture in cupcake baking sheets. You get the perfect single serving if you make it this way. Side item? Scrambled eggs and spinach cooked in bacon fat.
Yum. Absolutely, yum.
Adventures in La La Land
I had no idea that uploading and processing would take close to three hours today! What the #^&%, but whatever. Thank you for your patience.
There were a ton of things I wished had worked out better with filming, but I’m beyond pumped about the final product. We didn’t get to go hiking, see the Hollywood sign, or do a handful of other touristy California things, but we were so happy to be outside of Indiana for a bit that it didn’t even matter.
The video you’ll see is a collection of moments spent in Los Angeles with Queen Ebeth Warren herself. We spent a lot of time in West Hollywood – duh – checked out an awesome ketogenic coffee bar, I bumped into some random cute guy I follow on Instagram in a bar called Trunks – a mess, I know – checked out Venice Beach, ate Kardashian salads, and caught some cool views on the Go Pro while driving around town.
(We tried to see the Chinese Theatre, but the road was blocked off by Oscars setup crews. That was kind of neat to see – the setup for a crazy huge red carpet event.)
There was this amazing moment in the Frolic Room in Hollywood. An older gentleman came over to the three of us and shared a story of how he met a sultry Doris Day as a young delivery boy in LA. I began recording only a couple short minutes after he’d come over to us. I knew he’d share some Hollywood gold with us. His energy was so warm and you could tell this man had lived. The only reason the clip didn’t make the video was because of music in the background. Damned licensing and copyright laws…
I hope you enjoy the following bits of our trip! Thanks for watching and stay tuned for the Seattle video – I’m pumped to get to work on that one.
It’s Snacktime in the FATboys Kitchen…
I’m having a low-carb, deconstructed chicken sandwich this afternoon. I was inspired to come up with something new because S is having low-carb biscuits and gravy. While I do love the biscuits and gravy recipe we use, it’s heavy on the dairy side of life, and I need to stay away from that to keep feeling light and healthy.
- My body doesn’t tolerate dairy very well and since cutting it out of my diet over a year ago, I feel so much better on a daily basis. If I do have some dairy? I have some kombucha and get back on my mostly-dairy-free train.
To start, I fried a few chicken thighs in beef tallow using our home deep fryer. S had already made the keto bread so this was ready to go by the time my chicken was finished and ready for seasoning.
Next? We slice the bread in half and add some homemade spicy keto sauce on each side. Continue on to debone each thigh and chop, together, with spinach. Add your preferred seasoning – I used a mixture of cayenne, lime juice, and a pinch of garlic salt – and place the chicken spinach mixture on top of the keto-sauced bread.
At the top of this idea, I thought I would be able to mix the spinach and chicken, and make a sandwich with no issues. The mixture turned out to be a tad too unruly to rest calmly between the keto bread slices, so this is how the deconstructed version of this snack came to mind.
How was it? Absolutely DELISH. I enjoyed it with a crispy tequila water on the side.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Oh We’ve Got Buns, Hun. Keto Buns.
January kicks off some fun and new content for the blog. We’re hoping to make cooking videos a regular thing in the FATboys section of Gays in the life. People often think we have boring food lives as regular low-carbers, but with video like these, we hope to show that we’re anything but dull when it comes to our food.
We followed Maria Emmerich’s recipe from her latest book The 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse. We used the buns to make her sloppy ottos recipe – ground pork cooked with onions, topped with homemade keto thousand island dressing and sauerkraut – which turned out SO amazing. I want more.
I like to use keto bread in bun or loaf form for sandwiches… ESPECIALLY a good breakfast sandwich. The keto bread recipe in Maria’s latest book is dairy-free. Not everyone can tolerate dairy the same so this is a huge bonus for me. A little over a year ago, I cut way back on dairy and experienced great results. My weight-loss stall was broken and I could tell my insides were happy with me (TMI? lol)
Don’t be afraid to have fun with whatever lifestyle you live in the kitchen. A true diet shouldn’t feel like a diet. You have to live, people. Catch us under FATboys for more keto and low-carb gems.
Snap, Crackle, Pop!
I have a feeling we won’t be ordering so many wings now…
We’ve only had this bad boy for about a week, and it’s changed our kitchen game already. For the past (coming up on) three years, S and I have produced our low-carb creations via the stovetop, oven, our grill or crock-pots. This home deep fryer by DeLonghi doesn’t take up much space on the counter and has yielded some extremely tasty keto snacks for us.
Staying as true to ketogenic and low-carb form as possible, the only oil that will be used in our fryer is beef tallow – a form of pure animal fat.
Eating real food is the key, regardless of your lifestyle, so this single ingredient, healthy fat will do well with the heat of the fryer. Some oils – if cooked at too high a temperature – become bad for you.
We baked some bacon-wrapped smokies with the family over Christmas , so we immediately knew we had to try frying those…
(Pre-fry)
(Post-fry)
And check out these wings!
We’ve been ordering so many wings, but now that our schedules are getting back to normal, we’ll have the time and energy to cook regularly again.
How exciting! New toys in the kitchen means remixed recipes and more fun and creativity to keep things interesting as a pair of low-carbers.
Stay tuned,
This Evening’s Cocktail of Choice…
Tequila, LaCroix sparkling water, lemons and limes stirred.
It’s low-carb and yields a healthy buzz. Not for faint palates, this drink punches your tastebuds in the face. Yum.
